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Join Ryan Deiss, Co-Founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer, as he explains the “Before and After” strategy that will help you reach your target audience and show them that your product will get them to their desired After state. Using a brilliant Before and After example from Chatbooks, Ryan shows you what you can do when you get this right.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

How Chatbooks’ ad shifts from the Before state to the After state (« Use this as inspiration so your audience is open to your marketing message).

An ingenious way to position a product so customers understand your pricing model.

The mistake Chatbooks makes on their homepage that’s hurting their marketing message and how you can avoid doing the same.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Hi there, and welcome to Perpetual Traffic. This is Darren here, reporting in from the DM studio where we’ve put together a Ryan Deiss special for you. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the Chatbooks video, it’s a very successful video ad that went absolutely viral. In this week’s episode, Ryan’s going to talk you through the whole thing, detailing what makes this ad work so well, and explain how this ad brilliantly portrays the shift from the before-state to the desired after-state. Later in the show, you’ll see an ingenious way to position a product so the customers understand the pricing model. Most importantly, at the end of the show, Ryan highlights how even though this is an amazing video, there are some problems with the Customer Journey that could be vastly improved upon. I hope you enjoy it, and here’s Ryan.

Ryan Deiss:

Let’s take a look at a before and after example in action. I want to show you an example of what you can do when you really get this right. This video is probably one of my favorite little viral ad videos of all, it’s a company called Chatbooks. Now Chatbooks produces photo books for, primarily the target market is moms, and it opens with this woman in a tub, and no, it’s not what you think, but if you’re a parent, believe me, when you watch this video, you’re going to say, “Oh my God, that’s speaking to me.” Throughout the entire video, it’s before/after, before/after, before/after.

This is one of the best examples of really clearly articulating the shift from the before-state to the after-state. They talk about the product, but the product is always positioned as the vehicle. Okay, so keep an ear out for those specific things. We’re going to be going through, it’s only about a four-minute video, but I am going to be pausing it occasionally to kind of make notes and point out how they’re effectively leveraging the shift from the before-state to the after-state, and how they’re positioning what is a relatively simple product, a photo book, a book of pictures, and showing how this one product, their product, can actually transform this mom from the before-state to an after-state.

Now, don’t get really distracted by how hilariously awesome and funny this video is. This video is amazing, it’s astoundingly well done, and there’s a lot of different pattern interrupts and things like that that they incorporate, but I want you to focus right now, is that before and after process. The first thing that I want you to notice is how they immediately call out to their market. They immediately announce and point out who their who is. If you recall, that’s where we start as well with the before and after process. If you don’t know who it is that you’re serving, it’s impossible to know who to talk to, and it’s impossible to create really good, compelling marketing. Listen for this and catch it.

Mom:

I have three kids and I work from home, so people always ask me how I stay so calm and organized.

Ryan Deiss:

Did you catch that? “I have three kids and I work from home.” Literally the first sentence is a call out to the market, “I have three kids and I work from home,” so what are we talking about here, who is our market? Well, our market is obviously stay at home moms. Now, this is one thing that’s interesting to point out because a lot of times when people say, “Well, I don’t want to call out so specific because then I might offend.” Look, as a father of four kids, I can resonate with some of this as well, you know even though it’s a woman and even though it’s a mom and even though I’m not a stay at home dad, it’s still close enough. Don’t think that when you plant a flag that you’re doing it at the exclusion of everyone else, think about it more like concentric circles.

You’re specifically planting a flag so those people, they’re going to see it, they’re going to feel it, I mean I found out about this video from my wife because she’s like, “Oh my God, this is hilarious, this is my life.” For her, it made a lot of sense, I’m sure for moms who aren’t at home who aren’t stay at home moms who go into an office or go into work, this would resonate with them as well, so don’t think that when you call out to a market that you’re eliminating everything else. I’m going to back it up again from the beginning, and I want you to look for the statement of the before, the first kind of picture that we get of the before-state because it’s not what you think, right?

What you see when you look at this is almost a picture of maybe the after-state, you’ve got candles lit, bubbles, life is good, middle of the day, what mom wouldn’t want this? This is the ideal, perfect after-state, and yet they’re going to use this idea of an after, but bring you right back to the before.

Mom:

I have three kids and I work from home, so people always ask me how I stay so calm and organized. I’m kidding, do you think I have time for a bath? I’m fully clothed, I fell in the tub while I was timing my son holding his breath. [gasp] 26 seconds! Now go fetch mommy’s hairdryer.

Ryan Deiss:

And boom, so right there you are brought into the before, “Do you think I have time to take a bath? That’s ridiculous, I’m fully clothed,” boom, she stands up, she’s fully clothed, soaking wet, and we find out that this is another mom just like us, who’s trying to get through another chaotic day. Instantly we’re brought into this before, right? What do we know right now? We’re less than 20 seconds in, we know who the who is, stay at home moms, probably multiple kids, and we know what the before state is, a little bit frazzled, overwhelmed, definitely living in chaos. Okay, so let’s see if any more of these themes emerge.

Mom:

Motherhood goes by too fast. I haven’t slept more than four hours in 12 years.

Ryan Deiss:

Did you catch that? “Motherhood goes by too fast,” and then, “I haven’t slept more than four hours in 12 years,” an absurd statement, and yet what are we getting a picture of in that statement? Motherhood goes by too fast, this notion that time is passing you by, that life is happening and you’re missing it. Like literally, if you go back to that picture, life is happening behind her, and she’s missing it, but then we also find out that she’s exhausted. “I haven’t slept more than four hours in 12 years,” so she’s exhausted. Now we get to the emotional state, she’s exhausted, she also maybe feels a little bit guilty that time is passing by and that she’s missing things.

In this kind of battle, this good versus evil, there’s this notion that the clock is evil, that the clock keeps ticking and it doesn’t care, and it’s this evil force that is taking away kind of some of these amazing moments with our kids, and we’re missing them.

Mom:

My diet consists of the protein bars and pita chips I inhale in the dark in my pantry, and my children are growing like weeds, but I barely have enough time to keep them alive, let alone print pictures of them.

Ryan Deiss:

More chaos, no time. Before that, you know you see mom in the pantry scarfing stuff down, another before-state. She’s so busy, she doesn’t even have time to eat.

Mom:

Because here’s the problem, what the fork? Making photo books sucks.

Kid 1:

It sucks.

Mom:

Don’t say “suck.” They’re designed for moms with lots of free time, imaginary moms.

Ryan Deiss:

All right, so what do we have now? We’re learning a bit more about this mom, she’s just like us, she isn’t perfect, she occasionally curses around the kids and feels bad about it, but more importantly, now we get an introduction to the before-state with regard to the product, “Making photo books sucks,” right? It’s no fun. Now we’re 40 seconds in, and we’re only just now beginning to realize that this is actually about a photo book service, 40 seconds in before there’s even a hint of a product. They’re recognizing, appropriately so, that the emphasis needs to be on the who and their before-state.

Remember, it’s not about your product, it’s about your product is simply a vehicle to get people from this before-state to this after-state, so let’s see how traditional photo books fall short with regard to being this vehicle. In fact, they’re working against you in terms of getting you from the before-state to the after-state, but how Chatbooks can actually be that vehicle that we’re all looking for.

Mom:

They’re designed with moms with lots of free time, imaginary moms.

Ryan Deiss:

I’m going to pause this and we’re going to back to it, and I want you to listen to this line. “Photo books suck, they’re for moms with lots of free time, imaginary moms.” Listen to this and catch it, because we’re kind of poking fun and getting a sense of this notion of there’s this group of imaginary moms over here, and sure, they can use the existing products on the market, but that’s not us. All right, listen for it.

Mom:

Making photo books sucks.

Kid 1:

It sucks.

Mom:

Don’t say “suck.” They’re designed for moms with lots of free time, imaginary moms. What?

Kid 1:

My hedgehog.

Mom:

Really? Formatting them takes hours.

Ryan Deiss:

This is an example of average day. Now again, the average day is being fictionalized, you know it’s really being kind of pushed to the limits, but what’s the average day in the life of a mom trying to do photo books? Well, she’s up late at night, and she’s two Diet Cokes and an apple into her evening, and she’s finally just lost it. It’s not working, the photo books aren’t freaking working, she can’t make it work on her computer so that’s it, she’s done with it, out comes the hammer, right? Now we’re getting average day, we’re getting some narrative here with regard to the average day.

Mom:

They easily cost $50, so when Sarah does something adorable, I have to say, “That’s cute, but not $50 cute.”

Ryan Deiss:

What are we getting there? A little bit of guilt, right? You know, “That’s cute, but it’s not like, really $50,” now they’re not saying that a mom actually thinks that, but what you’re thinking as a mom is, “My kids are doing really, really, really cute stuff, and it’s being lost. It’s being lost, it’s not being captured. All of these thousands and thousands and thousands of photos of our kids doing really, really cute things, they’re lost, they’re trapped, they’re captured and held by the phone, and nobody will ever see them. I’ve got to decide, yeah all this stuff is cute, but is it so cute that I want to spend a ton of money to get it off, and is it so cute that I can spend a lot of time to do it?” Now we’re kind of poking at the guilt thing a little bit.

Mom:

But at least scrapbooking is great if you have no job or no kids, so not great. Jeffrey, put down the crossbow.

Ryan Deiss:

All right, so there obviously again, a pattern interrupt, that’s an attention reset that you’ll see a lot of different videos use, you know you get an arrow blast out, and mom catches it. Now we’ve got a mom that we can actually respect, but did you see what she said before that? “Sure, scrapbooking is great if you’ve got lots and lots of time, therefore, not great.” Now we’re poking at other existing products on the market, that apart from not taking you from the before-state to the after-state, in fact are inhibiting it.

Mom:

I am so tired.

Ryan Deiss:

Did you catch that? “I am so tired,” it is a theme that you see repeated again and again, what’s her emotional state? “I am so tired.”

Mom:

Don’t get me wrong, I love Instagram, but my kids never see our photos, they refuse to follow me. Hi Jeffrey, you’re doing great! But now there’s a solution I do have time for because it takes no time. Introducing Chatbooks.

Ryan Deiss:

We are a minute, almost a minute and a half into this video and we are just now finding out what the product is. Did you catch that? We are a minute and a half into this video, and we are just now finding out what the product is. Up until this point, it has all been about acknowledging to our who that we know who they are, and speaking to their before-state, and their desired after-state.

Mom:

Introducing Chatbooks, the app that automatically creates quality photo books from your phone. Chatbooks is shockingly easy, because you already did the work when you took the photos.

Ryan Deiss:

You see that? “Chatbooks is shockingly easy because you already did the work when you took the photos.” Now we’re beginning to introduce, and this is really, really critical, if you’re going to acknowledge that the before-state is your customer is tired and overwhelmed and exhausted, the last thing in the world that you want to do is position your product as something else that’s going to make them more tired and overworked and exhausted, right? You want to in fact position it the opposite, so scrapbooking? Okay, so let’s go back. Hey mom, you know how you’re really tired and overwhelmed and overworked and just don’t have any time?

Well, scrapbooking takes a long time, it’s really exhausting, it’s really overwhelming, and there’s a lot of stuff all over the place, it’s going to add more chaos to your life. They didn’t say that in as many words, but you get the idea. Now we want to position our product as separate from that, right? Our product is the exact opposite of that, so now we’re finding out that Chatbooks is the easiest thing in the world because you’ve already done the work. Apart from it being no work, it’s even better than that, you’re leveraging work that you’ve already done, that precious work and that precious time that you don’t have much of.

Mom:

Chatbooks creates and ships a photo book to you every time you add 60 photos to Instagram, Facebook, or your phone favorites. It even includes the original dates and captions. It’s like getting a magazine subscription to your own life.

Ryan Deiss:

Did you catch that? “It’s like getting a magazine subscription to your own life.” Now let’s go back to what do you have before. What you have before is pictures that are trapped on your phone, nobody ever sees them, you don’t have the ability to get them into the “real world” where people can see them and they can be viewed and remembered and oohed and ah-ed at, because photo books are really expensive and they take a long time, scrapbooking is even worse, but what do you have now? What you have now is you have a magazine for your own life, such brilliant positioning because it’s not even about a photo book anymore.

We’ve now positioned this as something that is separate, in particular we’ve positioned it as something that is a subscription, which I think is critical because this product’s pricing model is subscription. When we’re positioning our product in a way where it is different and unique in the marketplace, but that brings about a pricing model that we may not understand, so for example with scrapbooking, you’re going out and you’re buying all the pieces and you’re doing all the work yourself, with a photo book, you’re piecing it together, it’s a one-time fee, they said $50. This is a subscription, so now we need to anchor that idea to another subscription-type concept that we would understand.

Well, what are we accustomed to paying a subscription for? Magazines, there you have it. With Chatbooks, it’s a magazine of your life, really, really, really smart.

Kid 2:

Why is dad wearing a dress?

Mom:

Okay, that’s me. All right, the short hair was a mistake, okay? Unlike a photo book site, the Chatbooks app takes only 30 seconds to set up, and you do it once.

Ryan Deiss:

“Unlike a photo book site,” so before, you were having to take forever to set up, now it’s only 30 seconds. Again, everything you’re seeing with the attention resets, they’re more little things to call out to the who. Most women that I know, they had a thing where they got a bad haircut and they’re embarrassed by it, so we’re just pointing out like hey, we get you.

Mom:

30 seconds to record the lives of your kids. Technically, that’s less time than it actually took to make the kids.

Kid 3:

How do you make kids?

Mom:

What?

Kid 3:

What?

Mom:

What?

Kid 3:

What?

Mom:

If you love your kids, or think you someday might, click the install button here, or search Chatbooks in the app store or Google Play to install the Chatbooks app today.

Ryan Deiss:

Again, much like cursing in front of your kids, having to have the birds and the bees talk, something that all parents can relate to, really good pattern interrupt, and you see this mom, still real mom, running away from the scene. I’ll back it up so you can hear the first part of this one.

Mom:

If you love your kids, or think you someday might, click the install button here, or search Chatbooks in the app store or Google Play to install the Chatbooks app today.

Ryan Deiss:

“If you love your kids, or you think that someday you might,” I mean, it was so subtle, and it was presented in a humorous way, but what mom doesn’t love their kids? If you love your kids, or you think that someday you might, you know you should download our app, right? If you love your kids, or you think that someday you might, you should download our app, really simple and really smart call to action.

Mom:

What’s awesome is your Chatbooks requires zero formatting, and if you’re saying, “No formatting? That’s the only reason I do photo books,” then this isn’t for you, freak mom. These books are already beautifully designed.

Ryan Deiss:

There you go, “This isn’t for you, freak mom,” if you actually love the formatting. All we’re doing from this point forward is restating some of the points that we’ve made, and continue to present these new scenes that all parents of young kids can understand, right? Right now, what we’ve got is potty training, okay? All parents of all kids, you know you’ve got to accidentally cuss in front of your kids, you’ve got kids doing crazy stuff and destroying the house, you’ve got potty training, you’ve got having the birds and the bees talks with the kids, you get the whole thing, all right?

Mom:

These books are already beautifully designed. Did you do it, do we get to do the potty dance?

Kid 1:

No!

Mom:

Plus, these Chatbooks cost just $8, that’s what you’d pay for a day’s worth of diapers, except you fill Chatbooks with the kind of crap you care about. How about-

Kid 1:

Go away!

Mom:

Then your photo books won’t just be for special occasions, they’ll be for all the quirky daily stuff you and your family care about. Yes, it’s that easy, it really prints and ships your photo books without you having to lift a finger. Thank you. Jeffrey, get off the roof.

Kid 2:

Okay.

Ryan Deiss:

That obviously again, absurd, ridiculous, but what are we getting, what do we have this picture of? Mom in the before-state, the yard is a wreck, the kid is on the roof, kid jumps off the roof. This is an insane scene, but we’re still in the before-state, we are still in this before-state. Let’s go back, she’s really, really happy now, Chatbooks gives us a glimpse of the after-state. It gives us a glimpse of the after-state, when the Chatbooks person arrives with her thing in the mail, she gets some relief and she smiles a little bit, but then it instantly snaps us back to the before-state.

Mom:

Every time a Chat Book is shipped, you’ll be notified with enough time to edit your order. If you’re not satisfied, you can always get our money back, with our Love Chatbooks guarantee. That was really stupid. Chatbooks are made with the same paper and ink as photo books five times their price, so you can spend the savings on your little thumb suckers.

Kid 3:

Suck.

Mom:

Don’t say “suck.” My family’s life is insane, and I want to hold onto every single freaking stupid stressful beautiful moment, and now I can.

Ryan Deiss:

My family’s life is insane, and I want to hold onto all of it. You get this acknowledgement that yes, there’s chaos, and yet at the same time, I know it’s fleeting. “My family’s life is insane, but I want to hold onto it,” and you can see as she’s saying it, I’ll rewind it so you can hear it again, she’s almost exasperated, right? This notion of, you can see this sense of guilt almost welling up, I mean the acting in it is pretty amazing, I wouldn’t be surprised if this woman were a mom who’s going through all of this stuff, but listen in again, and listen again for the emotional state. Remember, we’re still in before and after, acknowledgement that it’s crazy, but I want to hold onto every moment. Listen to the tone of voice, this is being acted, but all of this, it should be making its way into not just videos, but sales copy and things like that as well. All right, listen for it again.

Mom:

My family’s life is insane, and I want to hold onto every single freaking stupid stressful beautiful moment, and now I can. You can install Chatbooks directly from this video, click the install button here, or tap the screen once and click the “visit advertiser” link here. Chatbooks.

Ryan Deiss:

It’s insane, I want to hold onto it, and now I can, boom, after. Before, life’s passing you buy, stuff’s going, yup, it’s crazy, but you wish you could capture it all but you can’t, oh wait, but thanks to Chatbooks, you can. We are now beginning the transition to the after-state, we are beginning the transition to the after-state. If you’ve ever watched The Wizard of Oz, and you remember kind of one of the opening scenes when Dorothy is in the house and everything is black and white, and then she lands in Oz, and when the door swings open, Dorothy walks out, Oz becomes, you know the movie literally shifts from black and white to color, and we are shifting into this after-state. Okay, we’re shifting into an after-state, that’s what’s happening right now in the video. First, they’re going to hearken back to the before, but now because we have Chatbooks, we’re beginning to get a taste of the after.

Mom:

You can install Chatbooks directly from this video, click the install button here, or tap the screen once and click the “visit advertiser” link here. Chatbooks, live your life and let Chatbooks print it. Oh, hi there, this is an actual bubble bath, since Chatbooks gave me the time for them. In fact, I’m ordering one now, and I’m done. I did not think that through.

Ryan Deiss:

All right, so what we have there is a mom who’s still a real mom, but she has now fully achieved the desired after-state. What is the desired after-state? The desired after-state is, “I’ve captured all the precious moments, but I haven’t let life get the better of me. In fact, look, here I am taking a bubble bath in the middle of the day,” all right? Really, really, really smart, really well-done video, amazingly well-done video.

Now what I want to do is I want to transition over to the homepage for Chatbooks, and I have one really, really, really, really, really big problem with this website. As amazing as the video is, I’m not seeing any, any of this before and after transformational stuff listed on their website, right? It’s product first, I mean yeah you’ve got a cute kid and that’s great, and the cute kid is, you know you can see his eyes are looking down at the book, which from a conversion perspective that’s fine, you know we see beyond easy photo books and some pricing, make your own book.

Like all this is okay, but where’s the mom? Where’s the mom? If you’re going to leverage before and after effectively on a website, then I’ve got to see the mom, ideally in that after-state. I would much rather see the mom in the tub saying, “I just made a photo book for my kids from the tub.” Right now, I’ve got mom in after-state, and I still get what the product is. I hate that I’m missing that. Now, stop wasting hours making photo books, you know that’s okay, but even on the page itself, “Watch the viral video, 36 million views and counting,” even in the introduction of the video, which is outstanding, it’s, “Us, us, us, watch our video, 36 million other people have, aren’t we smart, aren’t we great, aren’t we awesome?”

Kind of, I mean it’s a great product, and good job hiring the Harmon brothers to make your video. You should have also hired them or leveraged some of the stuff that they created for your website in your copy because the people that made this video nailed before and after. The people that wrote the website copy, not so much. Stop wasting hours making photo books, got it, I understand it, but where’s all this, where’s the before and after-state? “Don’t have time to make photo books? We hear you,” okay that’s pretty good, that’s pretty good, but then it’s all just features. There’s no emotion, there’s no acknowledgement of the before state or positioning the product as the vehicle to take them to that transformative state, and I really do think it’s as simple as bringing in some of the copy elements that were already in that video.

At a bare minimum, like I get if you want to say, “Well really, you know Chatbooks are for everyone, they’re not just for moms,” that’s fine, but where’s mom, where is she? I don’t get it, simple, beautiful, automatic, that’s great, I’m sure some hipster copywriter spent a lot of time coming up with those words, but where’s the freaking before and after? It’s gone. Everyone loves Chatbooks, yay, we’re so great, more features, right? More features, pricing, it’s just so, it’s pretty, but it’s sterile and it’s completely devoid of emotion and story. Now let’s go to the about us and see what’s going on here.

What do you have here? These are the founders, this is founder mom and this is founder dad, and these are their seven children, seven children. Now, on here you find out the story, this woman was that mom, so why not have this story on the homepage? Why not bring this over onto, clearly it’s not a privacy thing because it’s on the about us page, but even this, “Hold onto what matters.” This is a registered trademark, that should be the headline. That’d be a much better headline than what they currently have on the homepage. “Hold onto what matters,” compared to, “Beyond easy photo books,” which one speaks to the true desired after?

“Beyond easy photo books,” so before, you’ve got difficult and expensive photo books, now you’ve got easy and cheap photo books, that’s have, that is have. Have is okay, but as you move down that continuum, at each step you gain more power. Emotion is more powerful than have, average day is more important than emotion, status is more important than average day, and really if you can bring in a good versus evil element, then you’ve got that. What they have down here, “Hold onto what matters,” is a good versus evil argument. Right now, time is your enemy, you’re losing all of these things. With our product, you can truly hold onto what matters, you can beat the clock.

Amazing video, amazing video, clear understanding of before and after from the people who produced the video, a clear lack of understanding of before and after from the people who developed and wrote the copy for the website, so that’s a little bit disappointing.

All right, before Chatbooks, what does the stay at home mom have? Well, what she has is thousands of pics that are stuck on her phone that no one can see, or what she has is maybe an expensive photo book that was a pain in the butt to set up. Okay, how does that make her feel? Well, it makes her feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and tired. You saw that throughout the video, right? Clearly overwhelmed, frustration galore, and she says specifically multiple times, “I’m so tired.” What’s an average day like? Chaos. If there is one word I would use to describe that video, it would be “chaotic”, but chaos mixed with cuteness, you know and if you talk to the stay at home moms who are there living in the chaos, in their kids’ chaos and in their kids’ messes every day, they’ll tell you that that’s exactly what it is, it’s chaotic, but it’s very rewarding.

One really cute moment can turn a bad day into a great day, so that’s the average day. Status, you know it’s the frazzled mom that everyone pities, and no mom wants to be that mom that other moms are pitying because, “Oh my gosh, look at her, you know she clearly can’t keep it together, hasn’t even brushed her hair this morning, those socks don’t even match, you know blah blah blah,” no mom wants to be the mom that all the other moms pity or think that she just doesn’t have it together. All the moms want to be the moms that clearly have it together.

Now, this notion of good versus evil, we touched on this a bit, life is moving too fast, time is the enemy, the clock is the enemy. Each year, your kids grow a little bit more, you know they get a little bit older and those little moments that they had the year before, heck, even the day before, aren’t ever going to happen again, and that’s wrong and it’s evil and the clock is trying to steal all that from you. I mean, there’s not a great method today to really capture that and to hold onto it because all the things today that are used to capture and hold onto it take even more time, and so they actually exacerbate the problem, they don’t solve it, so that’s the before.

Now let’s look at after. After, what does mom have? Well now, mom doesn’t have 1,000 pics stuck on her phone. What mom actually has is a magazine subscription of her family’s life, so much more valuable from a have perspective. How does she feel? She feels accomplished, not overwhelmed, not frustrated, but accomplished, and even at peace, there’s this sense of peace. Remember before, you know, “Are you kidding me? I don’t have time to take a bath,” and yet after, there’s accomplishment mixed with peace, accomplishment mixed with peace.

Average day, still chaotic, but the cute moments are remembered. At no point did they pretend like, even when you saw her at the end as Chatbooks gets delivered, the lawn is still, there’s toys all over the place and the kid’s jumping off the roof, there’s still chaos, but she’s content because these moments are getting remembered. Now she’s scrapbooking supermom, that scrapbooking mom that all the other moms love to hate because somehow, even though they have like 15 kids, the kids all look great with their teeth brushed and their hair combed, you know and they’ve got these amazing scrapbooks to document every second of every kid’s life.

Well now, because of Chatbooks, you can be that mom. In terms of good versus evil, you’re actually able to slow life down a little bit. Chatbooks actually gives moms, parents, families, people more time, more time, they’re actually slowing down the pace of time. In terms of products and services, what are we really talking about? We’re talking about a done for you photo album, a done for you photo album, an incredibly simple, and I would argue, unremarkable product left to its own device. Yeah okay, awesome, you take the pictures on your phone, once 60 of them are taken, then it automatically creates a book, that’s awesome, yippee skippy, but there’s nothing overly unique or remarkable or miraculous about the product itself.

What’s unique and remarkable and miraculous about the product is that it shifts moms from this before-state that we described on the left, to the after-state that we described on the right. It is a vehicle that figuratively is like a time machine for moms, and for that, is it worth $8 a month? I think so. Okay, so I know this was a long example, but I really want you to think, and it doesn’t have to be done in video. We talked about how this is an example of a company that did it great on video, but poorly on a website. Those same elements could have been brought over to the website, and it would have sold really well from the site, but I want you to think about this when you’re getting into your messaging and crafting.

Are you speaking to the transition, and are you positioning your product not as this thing that’s really smart and amazing and inexpensive and, “Whoa, we got 36 million views and counting because we’re awesome and so hip and so with it,” screw all that, okay? Are you positioning your product as a vehicle that will take your market from their undesirable before-state to a far more desirable after-state? If you’re doing that, then my guess is you’re going to sell a lot more than your competitors, and if you fill out this before and after grid for your business, then you’re going to actually be able to do that.

Darren Clarke:

All right, well there you have it. If you want to check out the resources and Show Notes from this episode, go to digitalmarketer.com/podcast. This is Episode 116. The gang will be back as usual next week, so we’ll see you then. Have a great week.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Perpetual Traffic? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes!

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